A new investigation from the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus has raised serious questions about what LG televisions are doing behind the scenes.
Working alongside the tech channel Level1Techs and independent security researchers, the team spent months digging into LG’s smart TVs and came away with findings that go well beyond typical smart TV ad tracking.
The TV Is Mapping Your Home Network
Using Wireshark, a tool that lets you inspect network traffic, the researchers found that LG TVs actively scan the local Wi-Fi network for other devices.
This isn’t limited to gadgets connected to the TV. According to the investigation, one LG G5 OLED found dozens of unrelated devices on the network, including phones and smartwatches belonging to staff members who had no idea their gear was being picked up.
The TVs reportedly log a surprising amount of detail: your IP address, your physical location, the names of every nearby Wi-Fi network, signal strength, channel numbers, and the internal IP addresses of other devices around you, whether or not those devices are actually linked to the TV.
LG’s response was that this scanning enables normal smart features like device connectivity and content sharing, calling it standard behavior for smart TVs and smart home devices generally.
Microphones Recording Even While Offline
The more alarming claim involves audio. The investigation says an LG TV was able to record microphone audio even after being disconnected from the internet.
That audio was reportedly saved locally in plain text, meaning it could sit on the device until the TV reconnects, at which point it could theoretically be sent back to LG.
LG pushed back on the idea that this amounts to spying. The company says microphones only activate for wake-word detection if a feature called Far-Field is turned on, and that if no wake word is detected, the audio is processed on the device, deleted right away, and never sent to LG’s servers.
READ: Your TV Is Slowly Becoming an Ad Platform and There’s Nothing You Can Do About It
LG also stated it does not record or transmit ambient conversations unless a user has intentionally turned on voice features and said a trigger phrase like “Hi LG.”
Even so, the researchers argue the bigger issue is that this kind of capability exists at all, sitting quietly in millions of living rooms.
Ad Tracking Is the Real Motive
Much of this data collection appears tied to LG’s advertising arm, LG Ad Solutions, and a technology called Automatic Content Recognition, or ACR.
ACR analyzes what’s playing on your screen, whether that’s a streaming app, a cable box, or something plugged in over HDMI, so LG can build a profile of your viewing habits for advertisers.
READ: YouTube Ads Are Out of Control and That Is Exactly What Google Wants
LG Ad Solutions has publicly claimed it can reach 363 million “addressable secondary devices” in the US, a number that stands out considering LG says it has sold roughly 216 million TVs worldwide.
That gap suggests the company is counting far more than just the TVs themselves, likely including phones, tablets, and other devices detected on the same network.
Internal LG marketing materials shown in the investigation didn’t shy away from this. One representative reportedly said the company knows exactly who is in an LG household and which devices they own.
Another was quoted saying LG effectively controls the screen in your living room.
This Isn’t LG’s First Controversy This Year
This is the second time in a few months that Gamers Nexus has caught LG in questionable practices. Back in July, the channel discovered that some LG monitors were quietly installing software that served pop-up ads for LG apps and even McAfee antivirus, without clear consent.
That report led to public backlash, and Microsoft reportedly stepped in to pressure LG into removing the ads.
This Is Bigger Than Just LG
While LG is the focus of this investigation, researchers were careful to point out that ACR technology is used across nearly the entire smart TV industry, not just by LG.
A separate video from the review site RTINGS explored how almost every major TV brand uses some form of ACR to track what people watch.
Using an LG TV purely as a “dumb” display, without connecting it to the internet or logging into any apps, may not be enough to fully avoid this behavior. Researchers say that even offline, TVs can potentially gather data locally and send it once a connection is restored.
If you own a smart TV from any brand, it’s worth checking your settings for options related to ACR, voice assistants, and ad personalization, and turning off what you don’t need.
It won’t eliminate every privacy concern, but it’s a reasonable first step while this investigation continues to develop, including reports that Gamers Nexus is in the process of disclosing additional security vulnerabilities found during the research.
